Marcus Marr

Marcus Marr - Familiar Five 12"
Marcus Marr - Familiar Five 12"

Marcus Marr - Familiar Five 12"

$14.98

With his Familiar Five EP, London-based producer Marcus Marr has taken his darkest and most thrillingly outré turn yet. Recorded through the long dark nights in the splendid isolation of his Brixton studio, lead single “Familiar Five” is a tale of bizarre transformation that points up the fragile boundaries between dreams and reality. 

“Familiar Five” feels like an outsider anthem. “It’s about being a freak and accepting it – being happy to be a freak,” notes Marr. He narrates the song with his finest deadpan lip-curl, managing to make the lyrics sound suggestive, malevolent and wildly empowering all at once. “It was sounding quite sinister as I was making it, and I thought a voice would sound good on it,” recalls Marr. “I was reading Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and Kafka’s Metamorphosis as well,” he remembers. Other diverse influences setting the track’s fabulously unnerving tone include Marr’s readings about “familiar spirits” – the occult animals believed to assist medieval witches in their nefarious deeds. 

The other songs featured on the Familiar Five EP include “Love Release,” which taps into the energy and live power of his DJ sets; “High Times,” a track that’s influenced by his love of early 80’s dance music (“I was definitely thinking of Nile Rodgers in 1979, 1980, there... I have a bit of a thing for that period at the beginning of the ‘80s before drum machines took control of dance music.”); and previous single “Rocketship.” 

Marr is no stranger to collaboration, working with Australian musician Chet Faker on 2015’s Work EP. Work yielded two hit singles, “Birthday Card” (Annie Mac’s BBC Radio 1 first play, #1 Hype Machine) and “The Trouble with Us” (#1 Hype Machine). The Familiar Five EP, however, shows him in his individual element, an artist and performer who understands just how to make superb music for both man and machine. 

A regular at Berlin’s famed nightclub Berghain/Panorama Bar since 2014, Marcus Marr recently toured in North America with The Juan Maclean. He has previously toured with the likes of Hot Chip, Floating Points, Jacques Greene and Optimo, and has performed at the highly-regarded MoMa PS1 Warm Up series, Day For Night Festival, and Art Basel Miami. Marcus has also contributed mixes to Beats in Space and Boiler Room. 

Tracklist:

1) Familiar Five
2) Love Release
3) High Times
4) Rocketship

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Marcus Marr - Familiar Five: Remixed 12"
Marcus Marr - Familiar Five: Remixed 12"
Marcus Marr - Familiar Five: Remixed 12"
Marcus Marr - Familiar Five: Remixed 12"

Marcus Marr - Familiar Five: Remixed 12"

$14.98

This remix 12" ships June 2018

Tracklist:
A1) Love Release (Ara Koufax Remix)
A2) High Times (Gerd Janson Discotheque Remix)
B1) Familiar Five (Justin Van Der Volgen Remix)
B2) Rocketship (Prosumer's Re-Transmission) 


Marcus Marr's 'Familiar Five: Remixed' EP, due digitally on May 18 via DFA Records, features remixes from Justin Van Der Volgen, Prosumer, Gerd Janson and Ara Koufax. In addition to a digital release, the EP will be available via limited edition 12” vinyl. 


“It was fun to ask some of my favourite producers to remix these tracks,” notes Marr. “I love Gerd’s remixes and play them loads. Prosumer is a great producer and I’ve been a fan of his for ages. Justin Van Der Volgen I also love - his originals and his remixes are always interesting. And Ara Koufax I’ve been a fan of since their tune ‘Brenda.’” 

Marr is no stranger to collaboration, working with Australian musician Chet Faker on 2015’s Work EP. Work yielded two hit singles, “Birthday Card” (Annie Mac’s BBC Radio 1 first play, #1 Hype Machine) and “The Trouble with Us” (#1 Hype Machine). The Familiar Five EP, however, shows him in his individual element, an artist and performer who understands just how to make superb music for both man and machine.

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Marcus Marr - Brown Sauce 12"
Marcus Marr - Brown Sauce 12"

Marcus Marr - Brown Sauce 12"

$14.98

DFA is pleased to announce the long-awaited followup to Marcus Marr’s acclaimed 2013 single “The Music”.

A music obsessive all his life, Londoner Marcus Marr’s first encounters with dance music were acid house records which augmented his vinyl collection of rock and soul, and attending all night parties under Brixton’s St Matthews church. Traveling to the south of England to watch DJ Harvey play a lengthy set, he saw the kind of power a DJ can wield over a willing crowd.

“The Music”, was featured prominently in the 2012 film “Pusher”, starring Richard Coyle and Agyness Dean. The single’s B-Side “Pleasure Moon” was used to open the 2014 Versace show in Milan. Additionally, it was placed at #3 in Spin Magazine’s “The 40 Best Dance Tracks of 2013”, bested only by Daft Punk and Todd Terje.

Marcus has the following to say about these two new tracks:

Brown Sauce: “Depending on the vibe of the night, if you come and see me DJ it’s likely you’re going to hear some futuristic music, as well as some disco, house and so on. I want people to be warned about that so I made “Brown Sauce”. I’ve been playing it all over the place for a good while now and it never lets me down.”

Peacemakers : “This one has features me on my bass guitar. I'ts a Fender Jazz and its usually there somewhere on most of my tunes. I bought it off a clueless Brummie punk years ago. He wanted only £90 for it - i was sure there was a catch but no, it was the genuine article.”

These two tracks are a taste of what we can expect in the future from Marcus Marr, who will be releasing his debut album on DFA in 2015. 

 Track List: 

  1. Brown Sauce
  2. Peacemakers
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